"cactus of doom" <
[email protected]> writes:
> Jason Earl wrote:
>> "cactus of doom" <[email protected]> writes:
>
>
>> Bench press, squats, deadlifts, bent over rows, and farmers walks
>> hit most everything, and are easy to learn. Cleans and overhead
>> squats are good too, but they are a little trickier. Pullups are
>> good, as are dips.
>
> If only I had a pullup bar 
Parks generally have something you can use, and I did something
"similar" to a pullup by throwing a towel over a door (to protect my
hands). Sometimes you just have to improvise.
>> The real secret is that the body is one piece. You don't need to
>> exercise each and every muscle individually. Simply choose
>> compound exercises that work large portions of the body at one
>> time.
>
> Makes sense.
>
>> Keep benching, it will happen. Chances are good that right now
>> your true weakness isn't your pecs but rather one of the other
>> assisting muscles. Interestingly enough a "burn" is not
>> particularly indicative of what is growing.
>
> I was wondering if that was the way to approach it: continuing the
> overall and let the weaknesses catch up rather than targettting the
> weaknesses. I guess that's more of a natural approach anyway.
You can target weaknesses to some extent. However, to really trigger
growth you have to stimulate a lot of muscle mass. If doing curls
(for example) was all it took to get huge arms then all the guys in
the gym that just do curls would have big arms (they don't).
That's why lower body dominant exercises like squats and deadlifts are
so important. They put stress on large portions of your musculature.
>> Soreness isn't the goal. Adding more weight to the bar is the goal.
>
> Should I be working on finding my absolute maximum and doing only a
> couple of reps? I'm sure my understanding of the body isn't
> perfect, but it just doesn't seem like lifting something once or
> twice is going to stimulate growth -- or else I would already be
> built from lugging around my 90 lb amplifier.
First of all, depending on how much you carry around your amplifier
you almost certainly have made some gains. Chances are good that it
is easier to carry now than the first time you moved it (assuming you
move it regularly). The problem is that your body doesn't really make
the adaptations that weight training forces it to make. That's why
the exercises need to get progressively more difficult to keep seeing
results. Your body has better uses for the energy that goes into
building muscle. That's especially true in your case where you have
such a hard time gaining weight. Your body is only going to build
more muscle if it is exposed to increasingly difficult tasks. If your
amplifier got 10 pounds heavier every week you would start to notice
some changes
.
As for rep and set ranges, there are tradeoffs between using heavy
weights for fewer sets (high intensity) and lower weights for more
sets (high volume). Generally speaking if you are trying to train for
maximal strength you would spend more time in the high intensity zone
(1-3 sets of 1-5 reps). Hypertrophy (muscle enlargement) is more
prevalent in the higher volume ranges (3-5 sets of 8-12 reps).
Basically the idea is that volume and intensity work on a sliding
scale. Sometimes you want to concentrate on intensity, sometimes on
volume, and sometimes you want to be in the middle. It all depends on
your goals, and your current progress.
That's why writing stuff down is so important. These things need to
be dialed in for the individual.
>> Why don't you try eating more times a day first and see what that
>> does. You also might consider sharing what you are currently doing
>> with us. If you don't have anyone helping you with your workout
>> there are almost certainly things that you could do better.
>
> I try to eat as often as possible, but for some reason my stomach
> acts like a really sensitive valve. As soon as I stop eating,
> sometimes even if just for a minute or two (say, engaging in
> conversation), my appetite fades. It's as if my stomach is saying,
> "hey, i've got some work to do now, would you leave me alone?" So
> my solution is to shove as much food down there as possible at a
> time, since no matter how much I eat, I won't be the least bit
> hungry again for a while.
All things considered you could have worse problems
. The fact that
you have made gains using weights is certainly encouraging. For most
folks, however, diet is huge. Maybe when you start adding weight
you'll find your appetite. Honestly, I don't know. A huge part of
the reason that I lift is that I didn't like being overweight, and I
didn't want to give up peanut butter sandwiches.
I might not be the right guy to ask about nutrition
.
> Right now I'm on a four day cycle:
> day 1: curls, 20 lbs., 6 reps, 3 sets
> shoulder press, 20 lbs., 15 reps, 2 sets
> triceps extension, 20 lbs, 10 reps, 3 set
> day 2: bench press, 40 lbs, 8 reps, 3 sets
> flies, but I can't really do them right anyway
> curls, 15 lbs, 10 reps
> extension, 15 lbs, 10 reps (the "warm ups" i mentioned
> earlier)
> day 3: squats, 40 pounds, 10 reps, 2 sets
> weighted curls, as many as i can do
> same "warm ups"
> day 4: rest
That's a lot of curls, and not nearly enough big compound movements.
You also aren't giving yourself much rest.
> I know the weights are really low, but any more and i can't do the
> moves properly (for right now; i'm increasing steadily). I go until
> my muscles are too tight to go any more, but apparently it's not
> enough to feel the next day (except the squats).
Everyone starts somewhere, if you don't get hurt, and you keep lifting
heavy stuff you'll get stronger.
> However, I'm going to change this quite a bit, seeing as everyone
> recommends compound excersizes.
> Thanks!
The good news is that its not really that hard to get strong. The
simple formula is Eat, Lift, Sleep, Repeat.
Jason
